5 Tips to up Your Instagram Game

I’ve spent a good couple of years obsessing over Instagram – it’s absolutely my favourite platform. I enjoy ogling people’s beautiful photos of food, latte art and travel destinations. I also love the friendly, nurturing, community vibe on Instagram. People are more likely to say nice things to you than on Twitter, which feels like a rowdier, more argumentative place.

Having been on a few courses and done a load of experimenting on Instagram, here’s some top tips for you:

Learn to take good photos. This may sound a bit obvious, but Instagram is the most visual social platform and your photos need to stand out to get noticed. Here’s a brilliant article on how to take better photos with your smart phone – I found it super helpful.

Write good captions. Yes, it is primarily a visual platform, but you’ll pack more of a punch if you’ve written something interesting alongside your picture. A lot of people use it almost as a journal, to share little stories from their day, while others use bantery fun captions – the range of writing styles is huge, so pick an approach that’s right for you. I’ve got most inspiration from scouring accounts like Orla and Me, Old Fashioned Sus, Allison Sadler as they express themselves brilliantly and authentically.

Get some Insta role models. As I mentioned above, I have a ton of these. I don’t just seek inspiration from them in terms of how they write their posts, but I look for ideas for how they compose photos, how often they post, who they are following, what hashtags they use and how they use Instagram stories. I want to the learn from the best. Other accounts I love are Alison Perry, Father of Daughters, Phillipa Stanton

Use the photo editing phone app called VSCO. It’s free, but it’s not that good unless you pay for some filters. Instagram itself offers filters and editing tools, but they are a bit clunky and uninspiring. VSCO is more subtle and the filters are great. Because I largely stick to the same filters it gives my feed a more cohesive, consistent look.

Use a planning app. I use Mosiaco (which I paid about £5 for), but I know that there are free apps others like Planoly and Preview. Mosiaco allows me to test out what my photos are going to look like with the rest of my Instagram pictures before I post them. Again, so I can try and aspire to the Insta dream of having a gallery that is well thought out and is following a deliberate colour palette.

I hope these are helpful and if you have any tips for me – do comment below.

I also offer one to one Instagram training, if that’s something you’d find useful, whether that’s for your personal account or for business please get in touch. And here’s my Instagram feed, if you want to check it out.

I absolutely need to try the photo-organising apps! I had no idea they even existed until a few weeks ago so now it’s time to try and (hopefully) up my Instagram game! Great tips with some super helpful examples too. Thanks!